I don’t usually publish press releases, but this one is pretty unique. Congratulations to professional wrestler Mister Saint Laurent, who was able to acquire the one letter M.SL domain name. .SL is the ccTLD operated by the county of Sierra Leone.
Here’s the press release I received:
ORLANDO, FL, August 28, 2012 — Professional wrestler Mister Saint Laurent (MSL) has announced his acquisition of M.SL, the world’s first one character .SL domain name. The .SL extension, which is controlled by the West African nation of Sierra Leone, has never before allowed a one character registration. However, they have made an exception for the AWA World Tag Team Champion and allowed the purchase of the M.SL domain.
Not only is Mister Saint Laurent known around the world for his wrestling prowess, but he’s also the great grandson of former Prime Minister of Canada Louis St. Laurent. Experienced in international relations, Mister Saint Laurent was able to eventually secure the domain after an intense eight month negotiation. With many registrars not allowing one character domains and others having sold their one character domains for thousands and sometimes millions of dollars, there were many times MSL almost gave up on his quest to register M.SL.
“Winning the world championship was an unbelievable experience, but having the world’s only one letter .SL domain name means more to me than anything,” said Mister Saint Laurent. “The fans on mistersaintlaurent.com have been so loyal to me and I’m happy that accessing my site will now be easier than ever.”
The exact amount of the four figure purchase price has not been disclosed.
Good example of one of the reasons a domain name can have value, the ‘ego stroke’ it can give the owner. Doesn’t matter if the domain doesn’t have the standard value metrics, if it fits someone’s personal name or favorite topic, they’ll want it. In this case though a one letter domain usually has some intrinsic value. First place I ever saw the term ‘ego stroke’ was in one of Rick Schwartz’s posts, where he talked about this very same reason for owning a domain name.